Unprecedented Levels of Industry Innovation Demand a New Approach to Program Management

We are at the cusp of revolutionary breakthroughs in space exploration, supersonic travel, urban air mobility and new defense systems.

Siemens Digital Industries Software has submitted this post.

(Photo courtesy of Aerion.)

(Photo courtesy of Aerion.)

Written by: Dale Tutt, Vice President of Aerospace and Defense Industry, Siemens Digital Industries Software

These are exciting times. We are at the cusp of revolutionary breakthroughs in space exploration, supersonic travel, urban air mobility (UAM), reducing emissions in modern aircraft and new defense systems. But these promises come with challenges as more innovation increases risk in product development, certification and manufacturing.

This is at a time when companies are already under pressure to bring higher-performing products to market faster. As the industry responds to decarbonization, we see a steady increase in the use of electric and hybrid-electric propulsion and increasing use of electrical or electromechanical systems on platforms for increased efficiency, reliability and maintainability.

No question, these trends increase the challenges of product development. We’re also seeing more globalization, whether it’s competition, supply chains or a global/remote workforce—all of which has a direct impact on program complexity, further increasing pressure on program cost and schedule.

Fighting Off Risk and Complexity with a Closed-Loop Process

When we look at the state of the industry, it is quite clear that the traditional approach to program management is inadequate—too many programs are behind schedule or suffering from cost overruns. Paper-based documentation, physical hand-offs and working in silos won’t cut it in the 21st century.

What’s needed is an all-new approach to “program lifecycle development.” This is a process that starts early in the bid proposal process, and carries all the way through development and certification to deployment and sustainment—creating a more integrated program planning approach that brings all the domains and disciplines together. Such an approach can add more visibility, traceability and control across the entire product development and management lifecycle process.

One of biggest challenges I have encountered in product development was building accurate program plans and budgets while quantifying risk and its impact on schedule and cost. We didn’t always have a good basis of estimate, the functional areas were working in different systems, and there was limited learning from past programs.

Many companies struggle because they don’t have a process in place with a defined starting point to estimate the plan or what the risks might be. The new program lifecycle development approach is built around a closed-loop process, where all the program data is managed in a single interface, and teams have all the current data—from the start of the program to the finish. All users and leaders have access to what it will take to complete each task.

Teams within this environment know when a change is made in the middle of the program, and have a better understanding of the impact of that change both up and down the product cycle. A closed-loop process captures organic learning within each step of the process, and that learning is then shared and stored for future projects. Everything is in a single system, updates are automated and all analytics are in a single location.

With a closed-loop process, teams are no longer flying blind. They have an analysis, lessons learned from previous programs and historical data that allows everyone to make a better estimate of their program plans, budgets and risks, and to understand how those impacts might affect the overall program.

The Closed-Loop Process and Digital Transformation

Companies can achieve this closed-loop approach by transforming to a digital enterprise. Siemens helps A&D companies of all sizes with this digital transformation, so that they can harness innovation and manage complexity.

The digital enterprise includes a comprehensive digital twin, helping teams to better understand their systems through connectivity, traceability and the seamless integration and interoperability of their software solutions. Another key to the digital enterprise are digital threads which enable multiple processes to happen concurrently from the beginning of the product lifecycle to final sustainment.  A fully operable digital twin and multiple digital threads offer a greater understanding of product and process while reducing risk and helping teams go faster.

A Modern Digital Thread that Weaves the Entire Program Planning and Execution Processes Together

A digital thread helps customers take program complexity head on, and in the process allows for greater productivity and innovation. Remember, a digital thread is a collection of solutions, software and best practices that provides visibility, collaboration, automation and traceability within a key domain, as well as connecting to other digitalized domains.

In program planning and execution, the digital thread would weave together all five functional areas found in most A&D operations today: engineering, program management, supply chain, production and product support (Fig 1). The beauty behind this thread is how it can ensure the safe and secure hand-off of relevant data across all functional areas. Let’s take a closer look at these areas and how this digital thread can truly benefit teams.  

Figure 1. A digital thread weaves together the five functional areas and ensures the safe and secure hand-off of relevant data across the complete product lifecycle. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

Figure 1. A digital thread weaves together the five functional areas and ensures the safe and secure hand-off of relevant data across the complete product lifecycle. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

Bid Process and Conceptual Design

The bid process can be one of the most frustrating aspects to any new program. Often, the bid process is done in one system and then “thrown over the wall” to the team that executes the program. In most situations, the design team inheriting the bid doesn’t have the knowledge of assumptions that produced the bid. Imagine if the bid and proposal process were part of a connected program management process, and included historical basis of estimates, program structure and work break down structure that bidding teams can use to build the proposal plan.

Conceptual Design to Preliminary Design

If all the data becomes part of the same system, teams would be able to execute a more effective hand-off from conceptual design to preliminary design. No longer must a team “start over” on the program plan with individuals manually entering data from one system to another.

A digital thread takes significant risk out of the proposal, and helps with the hand-off when it’s time to start designing the program. This can result in more accurate proposals that include less ROM factors, helping teams win more programs. Teams then have a better chance of executing the project based on how it was bid and proposed in the first place.

As the product design moves through the process, there is significantly more information that needs to be managed. An integrated program planning and execution digital thread provides teams with a systems-based approach, so much of the process is automated as the program details are added. What if there’s a change to the design? What downstream functions will be affected? With a digital thread, program leaders are better positioned to understand the full impact of a change before committing to new requirements. After a change, teams no longer have to rely on emails and phone calls to notify downstream folks—the change is communicated automatically to all involved parties.

Preliminary Design to Product Design

In this phase, having an integrated program planning and execution digital thread in place can take the product development cycle to an entirely new level. Combined with a solid foundation for product lifecycle management (PLM), agile engineering can now be introduced.

Agile product development represents a modern approach to PLM, providing an extremely well-planned and executed process with a host of design, test and manufacturing advantages. Agile development is an iterative and incremental process responsive to change. It is designed to reduce the overall cost and timeline of development.  

The integrated program planning and execution digital thread helps a program manage the many sprints and parallel development processes—keeping the functional areas aligned as the product matures. The shortened development cycle time allows the product to be more attuned to the shifting state of the market and helps ensure the product is fully relevant when launched.

In my experience, I’d have to say an agile development process reduces risk in product development and allows a company to achieve its goals in a far more flexible manner.

Product Design to Test/Certification

Product complexity is driving new regulatory requirements, which increases the burden on companies to test and certify products, which can easily bleed into cost and schedule overruns. Verification and certification costs now represent up to 75 percent of the product development costs. There’s no question that a good program planning digital thread needs to be in place.

A digital thread connecting product design to test and certification allows companies to create a cooperative relationship with regulatory authorities, which is critical today with all of the new and emerging technologies. This digital thread can include the authorities as part of the process for the planning, execution and auditing activities across the product development and testing process.

Test/certification to Production

As companies seek to optimize their production processes to improve quality and reduce cost, production environments require the ability to share data insights from current processes and turn this into actionable information using a digital twin. Companies now require a digital thread to manage capital-intensive manufacturing resources and processes, to accelerate their production ramp-up and to incorporate new manufacturing technologies or concepts faster.

Production to Deploy and Sustain

Customers today seek predictive health monitoring and on-condition maintenance procedures to reduce the impacts of scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. This is driving the need for higher reliability and better methods to estimate operational costs.  Having an established program management digital thread gives manufacturers, owners and service organizations a means to sustain complex products within a service management environment. A digital twin can plan the entire support system, including spares provisioning and service plans.

Digitalization Makes it All Possible

Digitalization has emerged as the crucial advantage among modern aerospace companies that want to transform today’s challenges into unique opportunities. Quite simply, digitalization increases productivity by providing visibility into how specific requirements impact downstream engineering and manufacturing. This can be achieved by using a comprehensive digital twin and digital thread built on a modern ecosystem that combines an open software platform with rapid application development to easily build, integrate and extend legacy data and systems. 

(Image courtesy of Siemens.)

(Image courtesy of Siemens.)

An integrated program planning and execution (IPP&E) digital thread provides teams with a systems-based approach to project planning that spans across all functional areas. It integrates cost, schedule, risk and technical requirements into a fully planned, resourced and budgeted program management solution. Within the IPP&E digital thread, there are a variety of “entry points” from which additional functionality can be added as your needs grow or as your company evolves.

I’ve been fortunate to lead a lot of different programs and whether it’s a business jet or a spaceship, or a new fighter, we’re always striving to go faster. Whether it’s to certify faster, get through flight-testing faster, or to go into production faster, we have always struggled to meet program, cost and schedule while still meeting the program requirements.

In my experience, successful companies in our industry are the ones who have the ability to quickly evolve their business models and out-innovate the competition—and digitalization is the perfect means to get you there.

To learn more, visit the Siemens Digital Industries Software website.


About the Author

Dale Tutt is the Vice President of Aerospace and Defense Industry, for Siemens Digital Industries Software. He is responsible for defining the industry strategy for Siemens, leading definition of industry solutions for Aerospace and Defense customers.

Prior to joining Siemens, Dale worked at The Spaceship Company, a sister company to Virgin Galactic, as the VP of Engineering and VP of Program Management, leading the development of spaceships for space tourism. He led the team on a successful flight to space in December 2018.

Previously, Dale worked at Textron Aviation/Cessna Aircraft in program and engineering leadership roles. As the Chief Engineer and Program Director of the Scorpion Jet program, he led a dynamic cross-functional team to design, build and fly the Scorpion Jet prototype from concept to first flight in 23 months. Dale also worked as an engineer at Bombardier Learjet and General Dynamics Space System Division